Ridiculous
by Empress Empoleon
Summary: In which Ron tries to write an essay on moonstone all by himself and Hermione ruins everything.


It was one of those days when it never seemed to stop raining and being gray, and the whole of Hogwarts was gloomy and all the professors were in a bad mood.

None of that bothered thirteen year old Hermione Granger though. She was quite alright snuggling into the deep, sagging armchair in front of the blazing fireplace in the Gryffindor common room, reading _Hogwarts: A History _(for the twenty-second time).

That is until, Ronald Weasly stumbled in through the Fat Lady.

"Where's Harry?" Hermione asked, not looking away from the book. Ron frowned.

"At Quidditch practice. Says he won't be back for an hour," Ron said, throwing his wet cloak onto the carpet. The nod Hermione gave him was the only sign that she had actually heard what he said.

"I'm going to get my homework now," Ron called as he walked to the stairs leading up to the boy's dormitories. He quickly glanced over his shoulder, only to see that Hermione hadn't even acknowledged him.

For some odd reason, he didn't like that.

* * *

Ron plopped down into the seat across from the engrossed Hermione. He picked up a clean piece of parchment and dipped his quill into an ink pot.

He took a deep breath before setting the quill down on the paper. Concentrated scratching sounds were heard, and if Ron had looked up, he would have seen Hermione slightly smiling.

"Hermione, help me." Hermione's eyes looked over the top of her book.

"It doesn't seem like you need help. You just wrote something, didn't you?"

"Yeah. My name." Ron lifted the paper to show her his perfectly written name in cursive at the top. _Ronald B. Weasly._

Hermione sighed. "Ron, just do it, it's not even that hard."

Ron threw his arms up in the air. "_Hard?! _It's an essay on moonstone!"

"Exactly. Such an easy ingredient," Hermione mumbled, leaning more into her book to read the impossibly tiny print.

"Well, we're not all as good as you are," Ron shot back, deciding it not worthwhile to ask _her _for help. What did he expect anyways? Her to come over and gently dictate the answers to him, guide his hand as it flew across the page, stroke his hair-_wait, what?_

Ron glanced at her again, unable to understand what he had just thought up. She was _Hermione, _for Merlin's sake! She was just his friend (at the best of times) and nothing more.

(But he couldn't help but notice how her bushy brown hair fell over her shoulders and glowed in the firelight, or how her eyelashes draped over her chocolate eyes and..._no, bad Ron!_)

Ron shook his head furiously, as if that would throw the strange thoughts out of his (quite hollow) head. He bent over his paper and decided that, for once, he would do the paper all by himself.

He was quite smart enough on his own, thank you very much.

* * *

Ron opened his Potions book for the first time in a long time. He coughed as a cloud of dust puffed out. He opened to the page he needed, and began to read.

Well, he tried to. But, you know, he had a really great daydream going on about this very hard Wizard Chess game, so it was _somewhat _hard for him to concentrate.

(And then, of course, were the timely glances-_totally not staring-_at Hermione-he did not know what _that _was about.)

Looking at the time, he realized that more than an hour had passed, and his only progress had only been his name on the top of the page.

Sighing, he decided that maybe he should write something. Picking up a quill, he hesitated before dipping it into an ink pot and placing it onto the parchment.

_Moonstone is a very useful potion ingredient used in the Draught of Peace and several Love Potions._

He smiled before setting his quill down. Maybe he really _could _do this himself.

* * *

Hermione suddenly snapped her book shut, startling Ron. His arm flew out and knocked over the ink pot, allowing its contents to spill out over his "essay".

His lovely essay was destroyed and a perfectly fine piece of parchment was wasted.

Ron _did not_ appreciate that.

"Hermione!" Ron scrambled to his feet, grabbing the wet parchment. It sagged and dripped with ink all over his Potions book, blackening the pages.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Ron!" Hermione stood up and took the paper and tried some spells on it, but to no avail. It was already long gone.

"Hermione, I had so much done! I had worked so hard," Ron moaned staring after the paper as Hermione threw it into the fire.

"I really _am_ sorry, Ron. But I am really proud of you for doing it yourself!" Hermione said, turning toward him. "How much did you write anyways?"

Ron blushed. "Uh...two inches?"

"Is that it? That's all you wrote?" Hermione shrilly exclaimed. Ron meekly nodded.

"But I did it myself!" Ron weakly protested, but the smoldering look Hermione was giving him shut him up quickly enough.

"It's been so long Ron! I finished _Hogwarts: A History _for the twenty second time and you only wrote _two inches _of a _three page essay _for _Professor Snape!_ How could you be so poor at your homework?" Hermione rambled, massaging her temples.

"And I know that if you'd just _apply _yourself for once, you could easily get better marks than me..." she mumbled softly after.

Ron blinked. Did he just hear right? Was Hermione, the _insufferable know it all_, admitting that someone was smarter than her? And not just someone, _him?_

"Wait...please repeat?"

"You only wrote two inches, Ron! How-"

"No, after that."

"I didn't say anything after that."

"Yes, you did. I distinctly remember something along the lines of, 'Ron is smarter than me'."

Hermione flushed a bright red. "Ron, you can't even bear to open a book, and it takes you over an hour to write a couple paragraphs."

"But you just said-"

"What. An. Idiot._"_

Her words stung; Ron cringed slightly. "You _could_ be a little less blunt."

"Don't go about telling _me _what to do, _Ronald." _He cringed again at her harsh usage of his name. Hermione noticed this, and her eyes softened infinitesimally before hardening again.

Ron missed this however, so when he stared her down, he only saw a wall impossible to penetrate. Hermione held his gaze, not feeling anything anymore for the _buffoon _in front of her.

(It's not like she also found his blue eyes attractive. _Totally _not.)

"Why are we arguing anyway?" Ron wondered aloud, breaking the tension and causing Hermione to giggle. Ron looked at her, before cracking a smile.

"I don't know, actually," Hermione managed between laughs. Ron was laughing too, but only because she was.

Hermione couldn't stop for some reason, and it scared her a little. She was now gasping for air, and her stomach hurt. She leaned onto the nearest object-

Which happened to be Ron.

Hermione scrambled off of him, refusing to think about how her head had touched his shoulder and how their sides had rubbed against each other.

"I...need to go!" Hermione blurted, running toward the girl's dormitories, her bushy brown hair bouncing behind her.

"Me to!" Ron said, running to the other side. He glanced once more at Hermione before heading up the stairs.

Hermione risked a quick look over her shoulder and saw the redhead running up the steps to the boy's dormitories.

They didn't know it, but both of them smiled.

* * *

Harry stumbled into the Common Room, trailing mud and his trusty broomstick behind him.

"Sorry for being late, Oliver was being a real pain today-" Harry explained, before stopping in mid sentence.

In front of him, Hermione was helping Ron with his homework. And they weren't arguing.

He smirked. He couldn't wait to hear _this _story.

* * *

A/N: This is my first Romione one shot, and it's so pathetic I think I might cry.

_Done for:_

_As Strong As We Are United-Team Five_

_Diagon Alley-Flourish and Blotts_

_MissDominiqueLysander's Daily Prompt_

_Party Challenge-Seven Minutes in Heaven (One)_

_Key Signature Competition-C Major_

_OTP Boot Campt-Prompt #32-Ridiculous  
_

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